Transposition of the arsenate resistance locus of Bacillus subtilis strains 23 and 168

ABSTRACT Wild-type Bacillus subtilis strains 23 and 168 are resistant to high concentrations of sodium arsenate. The genetic configurations of the arsenate resistance loci of these two related strains of B. subtilis have been characterized. The transformable 168 strain has a single resistance locus which maps between phe and aroD in the terminal third of the genome. In contrast, strain 23 is shown to have its single arsenate resistance locus between purB and thr in the first third of the bacterial chromosome. Moreover, in strain 23 the chromosomal segment equivalent to the phe-linked asa region of 168 strains is missing. DNA isolated from 23 strains is able to transform 168 arsenate-sensitive strains to resistance and the heterologous 23 DNA is found to preferentially establish a new purB linked asa locus in such transformed cells. Thus, the majority of phenotypically arsenate-resistant cells recovered after exposure of competent 168 sensitive mutants to 23 DNA are "heterozygous" and still retain their phe-linked mutated asa locus. The tolerance of several of these heterologously transformed hybrid strains to arsenate suggests that the 168 and 23 asa gene products are similar, and a transposition model for the evolution of arsenate resistance in B. subtilis is proposed.